December 3, 2020 -- Shape Therapeutics has unveiled its adeno-associated virus (AAV) discovery platform, AAVid capsid, and results from its first AAV5 variant library in a nonhuman primate selection screen.
The AAVid capsid discovery platform uses nonrandom mutational fitness to create libraries of billions of unique AAV variants for direct-to-nonprimate human in vivo biological selection, according to the company. The platform combines DNA synthesis, synthetic biology, next-generation sequence barcoding, and machine-learning algorithms for the development of gene therapeutics.
The platform can create novel capsid variants with specific tissue-tropism. Shape Therapeutics also announced its new liver-tropic AAV5 variants.
The technology also addresses the need for high doses of AAV in therapies by redirecting cellular machinery already present in cells, to bypass the risks of immunogenicity and DNA damage.